


Medical Advancements

by silver_drip



Series: Infinity Earth [3]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alzheimer's Disease
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 09:49:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18808714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/silver_drip/pseuds/silver_drip
Summary: Some illnesses chase you.





	Medical Advancements

Peggy Carter had been sighing more often as of late. They had been directed at herself, which contrasted with her usual exasperation at her agents and plans going awry. It didn’t help that she hated hospitals. Doctors and their pleasantries, sticking magazines in the wait room, and appointments times that doctors considered only suggestions. 

It didn’t help that she’d been spoiled by SHIELD’s med-bays, but they were trained to focus on bullet wounds, broken bones, and the occasional basic physicals. None of them had experience beyond textbooks when it came to Alzheimer’s. 

Alzheimer’s, an insidious disease that was chipping away at her mind. Memory loss, confusion, frustration. 

She had hoped that it was some sort of poisoning, something she could fix. But the diagnoses hadn’t been a surprise, more of a punch in the gut. 

A sense of helplessness creeped into her chest, one she hadn’t felt in many years. It brought her back to when people thought she was a joke, a mindless bobbles to keep around to get coffee and look pretty. Worse more, it reminded her of that fateful day where she could do nothing as the Valkyrie crashed and took away the one man she loved. 

Now her mind was betraying her. It was almost laughable, after so many assassination attempts, coups she snuffed out, and guns aimed at her—it was her own brain that was going to be her undoing. She’d worked so hard to make SHIELD prosper and to protect the world, yet she couldn’t even protect herself. 

Her only comfort was that she’d groomed her replacement, Nick Fury, well. She hadn’t expected it would need to happen so soon though. 

But there was one chance, a sort of irony and mixture of perfect timing. 

Anthony Stark, Ingenium, the one organization she hadn’t been able to properly penetrate—she’d snagged one of the few spots for a new drug trial that battled onset Alzheimer’s that they were conducting. It had already been heralded as groundbreaking and before they’d even started human testing. 

She was at the mercy of Anthony Stark, and they both knew it. He’d gone out of his way to introduce himself and call her by her SHIELD title of Director Carter. His grin had been smarmy, but Peggy bit her tongue, not wanting to sabotage herself. 

Oh and how he flaunted it, making jokes about SHIELD and all their failures, many of which were buried so deep that only she knew about them. 

He seemed to exemplify the worst of Howard’s ego: quick to pat himself on the back and brag. At least he wasn’t a drinker or abusive. She could deal with egos. But there was no one or anything he was held accountable too. The way he was infecting every aspect of life meant if he chose to, he could wreak havoc. 

There had been the Red Scare, but now the world should be afraid of Anthony Stark. 

She wouldn’t let him gain control of SHIELD because of her though. When she’d made it into the testing-pool she’d handed over the reins to Fury, taking on a tertiary roll. 

Peggy was called back to the doctor’s office. Life had already pulled enough fast ones on her. She just prayed she wouldn’t be in the testing group that got the placebos. 

**Author's Note:**

> Next one-shot on Thursday ;)


End file.
